Bored of DM'ing :(

[DDK]

What do you do when you're bored of DM'ing?

I've been running a game now for about a year. The PC's started at 1st-level and have made it to 8th (although, they would've been around 10th had they not died so often). The group has just started kicking butt in the Crater Ridge Mines and I'm finding it incredibly boring to DM the module.

It's not that I don't have fun, but the fun is garnered from being with mates and joking around. The game itself is a chore that I dread. Nobody else is really willing (or able) to run a proper or lengthy game so it's not like we can just swap.

Sigh... what do you do when you're bored of DM'ing?

 

[ForceUser]

Sigh... what do you do when you're bored of DM'ing?

I take a break. Take a few months off, you'll soon be itching to run a game again. DMing is addictive

 

[Mr Fidgit]

Nobody else is really willing (or able) to run a proper or lengthy game so it's not like we can just swap.

why not swap, just for a while? your friends could short games or one-shots, just 'til you're ready to DM again.

 

[Creamsteak]

Happens to everyone I guess. I burn out all the time, mostly because my sessions start strong, but my "crew" seems to be the kind of group that thinks that DnD is the backup thing to do, not the thing you wait all week for...

For me, I sleep during a game day that we were "supposed" to play, and by next week I'm rejuvinated because I missed the last session.

It will never work for everyone, however...

 

[Malhavoc]

Is there a way you could find another group to be a PC in?
Or is there not enough time for that?

 

[DDK]

Is there a way you could find another group to be a PC in?
Or is there not enough time for that?

Time isn't the problem, more that it takes ages to find a decent group here. Took me 13 years just to get this one together...

Like I said, it's not the group that's the problem, it's the game.

 

[thundershot]

I ran into a similar problem in the Crater Ridge Mines... Strange. What I ended up doing the 3E converted Dungeonland as a side-trek, and now everyone's excited. It might have something to do with the fact that up until last session, the PC's had no clue what they were looking for in the mines...

I've got to say one thing, they beat the air temple priest, and my players were expert tacticians throughout the entire battle. I was proud of them, and gave them some extra XP... now we're hyped to continue!


Chris

 

[DDK]

I ran into a similar problem in the Crater Ridge Mines... Strange. What I ended up doing the 3E converted Dungeonland as a side-trek, and now everyone's excited. It might have something to do with the fact that up until last session, the PC's had no clue what they were looking for in the mines...

I've got to say one thing, they beat the air temple priest, and my players were expert tacticians throughout the entire battle. I was proud of them, and gave them some extra XP... now we're hyped to continue!

I'm actually wondering if I'm bored as a DM because I'm running a module. I'm used to making up NPC's and traps and treasures and whatnot and getting to see it all play out. Now, all the work is done for me...

 

[Emiricol]

Depends on how you are using the module, what the group is into (mine finds dungeons a diversion, but a poor main focus), etc.

The best recommendation is to ask one person to run a side adventure for you. Come in with a new character with the understanding that it'll be temporary. After a couple months of that (if not much much sooner) you'll be all eager to DM again and your players will have a finer appreciation of how difficult good DMing is

 

[GrayIguana]

Fourecks - I get very bored DMing modules as well, and I had the same thing happen in the Crater Ridge Mines. I shook things up by using the NPCs how I saw fit. I added a bit of excitement for myself by arranging NPC defenses, or organizing how the NPCs react to the PCs actions.

I don't think that it bored me because it is a big dungeon crawl as much as I didn't design it. I think you become more "invested" in stories, and NPCs you create yourself, even the ones you create simply as fodder for the PCs. I get excited about creating my own plot lines and villains. This in turn creates a better game as I get better feed back from my players. In the Crater Ridge Mines, I got more questions like "Why are we here again?".

Not that the module is bad. I loved some of the things that occured in the module, and things get a lot more interesting once they get to the inner and outer fanes. But even then I cut out a few things that I thought would be boring. I'm kind of rushing it as I'm itching to get to the adventures I have planned for after the module.